Mr. Bachmann and His Class

What a great documentary! Sure there must be a plot for a great 3-hour documentary as such, but you don't feel like. They did such good job filming the documentary. I watched it with a smile on my face with full empathy: sometimes feeling like one of these lovely students and sometimes one of these great professors. If I have a chance I want to give a big hug to each professor starting from Mr. Bachmann. Those kids are so lucky to have them in their lives and sure will be so thankful to have met them for the rest of their lives.

A look at the life of a group of grade 6 students and their teacher in a medium sized town in the middle of Germany's industrial heartland. It sounded a bit dull but went along with an open mind to see this during the NZ International Film Festival.

There's no narration and no script. But the cinematography and sound are flawless enough that it feels like you're actually there experiencing life in this town and in Mr Bachmann's class.

It's a fairly personal fly-on-the-wall look at what initially appears to be the slightly unstructured work of a teacher nearing retirement who sometimes struggles with the requirements of educational bureaucracy while doing everything he can to patiently guide his students development of evidence based critical thinking and understanding of the complexities of the wider world without just filling them with academic facts to pass tests. While Mr Bachmann's style appears unstructured, there is clearly a purpose and objective that is being crafted by his gentle but firm wisdom, knowledge and musical skills to establish and build a positive, supportive and educational rapport.

The film makers have sensitively and delicately captured a point-in-time glimpse into the world of a very diverse group of students during a rapidly changing time in their lives. I'd like to thank Mr Bachmann, his students, the parents of the students and the school for allowing this candid and insightful look at their world to be recorded. While this is a long film, it didn't feel like it, and I felt like I had spent a year living in Stadtallendorf, and felt the emotional connection Mr Bachmann had formed with his students who all seemed to have developed a great deal of respect for him during their time in his class. Actually cried at the end of the film when the class left for the Summer to go on with their lives and Mr Bachmann had said goodbye to them.

Would strongly recommend this film to any teacher, or anyone thinking of becoming a teacher, or any parents with children approaching or going through their adolescent years. Hopefully this film will eventually reach a wide audience on international streaming platforms where viewers can pause for 'comfort' breaks.

Despite the demanding running time, you don't get bored watching this great documentary. In times, when you are used to see disturbing news pop up almost every day, this film gives you, what we all need so badly, hope.

I had the pleasure to see this film at the Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival), with the personal appearance of the camera man and coauthor, Reinhold Vorschneider, who talked a little about the making of. It was amazing to learn, that originally they did want to do a film about the small city of Stadtallendorf, not about the school in particular, or even the class of Herrn Bachmann.

Things changed around, and slowly the school shifted into focus, but not even then they had Bachmann's class in mind, but all 6th grades (there are 3 parallel classes). Only when they started filming it became obvious that this class had something special, an unusual teacher with a lot of empathy, patience and understanding, but still kept a certain discipline at the same time. Now the focus is on Bachmann and his pupils, other teachers do show up, but only on the sidelines. The three and a half hour are worth every minute watching it!

Such a beautifully told story. Watched it with a smile on my face and warmth in my heart and enlightenment. I see that we don't respect enough kids of this age. Also respect for the bold move of making such a long film.

Who wouldn't like to spend a year in a great teacher's classroom? Herr Bachmann is just such an educator. He wears a skull cap and a stubble beard, has an unorthodox teaching style, heavy on music.

Herr Bachmann runs a class in which pupils from Bulgaria, Turkey, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Brazil are preparing for their secondary education. Some haven't learned the German language yet.

Because of his relaxed style, and we never seem Herr Bachmann getting angry or annoyed, his high-school pupils admire him. On top of that he is witty, warm, playful, challenging and a resolute teacher when necessary. He is interested in his kids and teaches them values such as solidarity and tolerance, perhaps even more important than German and math.

Some constructive criticism. With its 3.5 hours, the film is too long, although admittedly, it takes time to get to know a class. The school-outing to a WW2 site could have skipped, IMO. OTOH, perhaps a German director feels it is obligatory to pay attention to this part of history. To me, however, it just was an unnecessary deviation. Apart from that, a warm feel-good film.